Socialists Organizing Women to Amp Up U.S. Turmoil

Activists from the National Organization for Women will join the D.S.A. controlled National Jobs for All Coalition as it begins a monthly "first Friday" vigil on March 4 in New York and other cities around the country.

Long time D.S.A. member Noreen Connell, is a former assistant commissioner of the New York State Department of Labor. Also a former president of N.O.W. New York State and current head of National Jobs for All's Women's Unemployment Task Force, Connelll says that, while the jobs crisis is harming all sectors of society, "women and girls are being hit especially hard".

Organizers of vigils, set to coincide with the release of unemployment information by the Bureau of Labor Statistics each month, aim to pressure Congress to enact a federal jobs program. In the meantime, they will push for extension of unemployment benefits, resumption of federal assistance to states and municipalities to avoid layoffs resulting from draconian budget cuts and the creation of "green jobs" at the expense of the defense budget.

The coalition sponsoring the vigils represents "all sections of the American working class": it includes the National Rainbow Coalition, the D.S.A./Communist Party controlled Jobs with Justice, the radical Labor Council for Latin American Advancement, leftist Jewish Groups, labor unions, "peace" groups, "religious" organizations and others.